In 1997, I remember Carole Tongue, the Labour MEP for whom I was then working, jetting off to a gathering of the European left in Malmo in Sweden where it seemed we on the left really were the masters now. Governments headed by socialists outright or in coalition were in power in 12 of the then 15 European Union countries. Tony Blair had just added Britain to the list.
I was reminded of all this when I was in Oslo on May 12-13 for the Progressive Governance Conference. In previous years, this has played host to many heads of state, with participants including Gordon Brown and Joe Biden. This year, however, the atmosphere was more downbeat and, with the left out of power in most countries, the main issue was how to win (again) in a downturn.
We gathered in Norway as a left green-coalition is in power. Greece and Portugal would hardly have served as great examples, and the socialists have just taken a pummelling in Spain. As a consequence, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was ever-present – from opening proceedings on day one onwards.
Under the constraints of proceedings being conducted in English, the second language for most participants, he was no Barack Obama but seemed like an efficient and pleasant bank functionary. The closest he got to fiery rhetoric was in reminding us that it was only by aping the centre-left that the right had scored successes. “The right have stolen our clothes all over Europe”, he opined dramatically. Indeed, hugging huskies and hoodies prove the point. The progressive parties, he told us, are like Coca Cola – the “real thing”.
Contributing to the soul-searching on day two were the Serbian premier and Greek leader George Papandreou. Of the latter, one conference-goer dryly remarked to me that he was at the buffet-lunch as he wouldn’t get fed at home.
The need to reconnect with the “squeezed middle” was a theme taken up by Ed Miliband who said that we were experiencing a new inequality in Britain – not just between the rich and the poor, but between the rich and everyone else.
Back at the Malmo Socialist Congress, Tony Blair had emphasised his then favourite “modernise or die” mantra, centred around a recognition – and perhaps an over-embracing – of the market economy while effecting year-on-year welfare spending increases.
Ed Miliband outlined a realist version for new times. He warned against abandoning the role of markets, but added, importantly, that governments should limit the dislocating impact of markets. This prescription directly addressed the theme of the event, “A post-crisis agenda for the centre-left: securing shared prosperity”.
Making it happen will be a challenge, but not an insurmountable one. Although the conference mood sometimes bordered on doom and gloom, Miliband told us we should avoid excessive pessimism. Following the local elections, there is reason for doing so in England. But there is a lot of work to do in Scotland.
What a difference seven days can make. At the Oslo dinner “moderated by Peter Mandelson” (yes, really), we were told by French delegates that Dominique Strauss-Kahn would wipe the floor with Nicolas Sarkozy in any French presidential second round run-off.
By the following week, DSK’s reputation as “Mr Competence” at the International Monetary Fund was in tatters, with images of him looking baggy-eyed and forlorn in a prison garb.
I was only in Oslo for two days, but both the intense experience there (working lunches, working dinner) and the spectacular political demise of Strauss-Kahn underlines again how right the late Harold Wilson was. A week really is a long time in politics.
